Earl Fruchtman Memorial Seminar
The Earl Fruchtman Memorial Seminar is held at the annual meeting to honour the memory of Earl Fruchtman who was a longstanding contributor to and champion of the ULCC.
For most of his career, Earl was Counsel with the Criminal Law Division of the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General. For his last 23 years, he was Lead Counsel in that Division for federal/provincial/territorial matters and federal legislative reform and was appointed General Counsel in 2009.
The overwhelming focus of Earl’s work was criminal law policy, which first brought him to the ULCC in 1988. From that point on, Earl attended virtually every annual meeting, up to and including in 2015 – an impressive 28-year involvement. He served for many years as Ontario’s Jurisdictional Representative to the Criminal Section, was Chair of the Criminal Section in the 1996-1997 term, and served as President of the ULCC in 2000-2001.
While Earl executed these official duties with consummate professionalism and thoughtfulness, he will probably best be remembered for his passionate, persuasive (and booming) interventions at the annual meetings, his behind-the-scenes mentorship of newer delegates, and his simply exemplary judgment. He had a singular gift for melding principle, practicality and common sense. And he set a beautiful example for the collegiality that is a hallmark of the ULCC.
Earl also understood the unique value of the ULCC as a body for generating arm’s-length, expert consideration of and support for law reform proposals, and as a forum for studying those issues that straddle both the criminal and civil spheres.
Earl passed away in 2016 and the inaugural Earl Fruchtman Memorial Seminar was held at the 2017 annual meeting.
List of presentations at the Earl Fruchtman Memorial Seminar:
2017 – Mr. Marco Mendicino, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General; presentation on The status of the criminal justice system review
2018 – Joanne Marceau, Chief Prosecutor of the Director’s Office and Patrick Michel, Chief Prosecutor of the Legal Services’ Office of Quebec’s Directeur des poursuites criminelles et pénales (DPCP); presentation titled, The Search for Balance between Independence, Accountability, Discretionary Power and Professional Autonomy
2019 – Iain Hollett, Director of Public Prosecutions (Newfoundland and Labrador), Pegah Memarpour, Acting Director of Policy and Strategic Planning, Justice and Public Safety (Newfoundland and Labrador); presentation titled, Another Tool for the Tool Shed – an overview of Justice Summits held across the province of Newfoundland and Labrador
2020 – Open forum on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the criminal justice system
2021 - Kathleen Roussel, Director of Public Prosecutions and Deputy Attorney General of Canada; presentation on Racism and Systemic Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System
2022 - Panel: Justice Anna Loparco, Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench; Deputy Chief Judge Joanne Durant, Alberta Provincial Court; Judge Michelle Christopher, Alberta Provincial Court; Justice Leonard (Tony) Mandamin (retired), Federal Court; Matthew Hinshaw, Alberta Crown Prosecution Service; presentation on the Alberta Courts Restorative Justice Pilot Project
2023 – John Diamond, K.C., Director of Prosecution at the Prince Edward Island Department of Justice and Public Safety; presentation on The Justice System in PEI
2024 – Professor Shauna Van Praagh, President of the Law Commission of Canada; presentation titled, Serious, Surprising and Sustainable – The Project of (Re)Building a Law Commission for Canada